A long, busy day

I met the roofers first thing, and they got to work putting the roof back on. Unfortunately, their work was slowed due to off and on rain. It would rain in short bursts, and no sooner would they get their tools put away it would stop. It was slow going at first, but the rain stopped for the day by midmorning.

At 9 am, C and I met the landscape architect to go over our plan. Overall we like it, but we both wanted time to think about it and live with it. It is hard to visualize the finished look from an overhead plan. Just as we were going to go outside and walk around to better visualize things, it started to pour rain and got very cold and windy. We ended up just looking around from the garage, and then C had to go to work. I think we will spend some time this weekend taping off things and then walking around.

I took a breather and met C for lunch. After that, I went to two lighting stores and one home supply store that sells lighting. (I need all new lighting fixtures throughout the house. There were none when we moved in). It was a good trip - I got a lot of good ideas and I think I can get what I need for not much money. I at the second lighting store, I got in a bit of trouble - a salesman pounced on me when I walked in and introduced himself in case I had any questions. When I actually did have a question, I was unable to locate him in spite walking around looking for him. Another salesperson approached me and while I was asking my question, the first sales person approached us both and asked me again if I had a question. I said yes, but I couldn't find you and this guy was right here. Boy was he mad! Not that I cared - I did my best - but I couldn't believe I got such a dirty look in a store!

After going back and checking out the roof, I headed out to my local Ikea to look at lighting fixtures and laminate flooring. I never knew Ikea sold laminate flooring, but it got some good reviews on various web forums. I got some good lighting ideas here as well, and picked up flooring samples too. The laminate is very cheap and easy to install. As if this wasn't enough driving around today, I stopped at Home Depot on my way home and looked at lighting some more. I finally ended my day at 8:30 pm.

I thought this was an interesting shot because it shows the progression of installing the shingles. The first thing is the waterproof paper (in black). Then they did the ridge in alternating shingles, and then started with the bottom row and worked up. I couldn't believe how fast it went up. I would turn around for 5 minutes and a huge area would be done. The roofers told me the shingles are designed that way - i.e. easy to place properly.